2013 XC60 Intermittently Not Starting

[kayles]

Hi there,

I have recently bought a 2013 XC60 D5 Teknik a few weeks ago and have had nothing but problems since I bought it.

On the second day I had it, I drove a short distance to pick up my friend at the airport. I went in to the airport to meet her so the vehicle was off for a short time. When we arrived back at the vehicle, it would not start. It then came up with an error message that the battery was low. I tried a few more times to start it, but nothing and called the NRMA. When they arrived and attempted to start it, it turned on immediately. I got him to check the health of the battery while he was there though and apparently it wasn;t good and wasn;t holding it's charged (the previous owner hadn't used the car very much in the previous year) so I had the battery replaced on the spot, thinking all my problems would go away. Spoiler alert, they did not...

The car then went in for a service the next day which was preplanned anyway. They reset the BMS as the NRMA guy couldn't do it, and the car was given a clean bill of health.

The next day I drove it about 40km and had to pull over for an unrelated issue. I then had to drive on a further 10km to a fuel station and when I tried to restart the vehicle at the fuel station to resume my journey it would not start. I moved the gear selector to Reverse and then back to Park (in case it was the Park sensor switch) and it started the second time around.
I then managed to carry on my journey that day and the next day with further stops and starts without an issue starting the vehicle.

On my next journey I was on my second stop when the vehicle would not start again. I tried the Reverse and Park trick again, thinking that would solve it and unfortunately it didn't. It took many attempts and about 10-15 mins before the vehicle would start.

To explain what happens when the car does not start - the engine doesn't even attempt to turn over, and then the engine light comes on. That's it.

Things I've tried and ruled out:
- the park sensor switch is fine. The car acknowledges it is in Park when I start it
- changed the battery (I now think the low battery and the failing to start at the airport were actually unrelated)
- checked all the battery connections are clean and not loose
- checked the connections on to the starter solenoid are not loose or corroded
- changed the batteries in both key fobs (I've only been using one of the fobs, but both fobs were replaced by the previous owner in Dec 2020 - I'm unsure why...)
- turning off the lights from auto mode (someone said it fixed it for them in a forum so I was willing to try anything!)

Any other hints or tips of what else to look for, or what might be causing the issue? It's intermittent and I can't think of any commonalities between the times when it hasn't worked. Given that I've only just bought the vehicle, I'm devastated to have bought such an issue - I thought that XC60's were generally a very reliable model, which is why I bought it, so this is a bit of a blow! Any help greatly appreciated

[seanc]

Perhaps you can provide a bit more information as to what does/does not happen when it fails to start:

• Does the steering lock unlock (a motor should go whizz)?
• Does the ignitition turn on along with the radio?
• During that time if the door is open does the car beep to tell you the ignition is on?
• Can you see the brake lights in a reflection (can someone verify for you), and/or can you hear the switch disengaging with park as you press and lift off the brake pedal?

If nobody has scanned the car for fault codes yet, that would be a good start, otherwise perhaps it's some kind of interlock issue? I don't think my cars will shift out of park without the engine running... hence there's an interlock override slot behind the "waterfall" console.

[kayles]

Thanks for your reply @seanc

To answer your questions:
Yes the steering lock unlocks
I’m struggling to remember, but I’m fairly sure the ignition and radio comes on
I didn’t try it with the door open so not sure about that one

The good news is, that since I changed the batteries in the key fobs (*touch wood*) I’ve not had any further issues so I’m really hoping that was it.

[kayles]

Update:
So it wasn't the key fob batteries as the car stranded me again today. I had both keys on me and neither worked so its not a key issue.
I'm assuming now it may be an electrical issue.
I sat and tried restarting it for about 20 mins but it didn't give in. Luckily I wasn't too far from home so I ended up walking home and walking back about an hour later - it then started first time.
Any further bright ideas welcome please!